Saturday, June 21, 2008

Movie Guns XI

Hello again, and welcome to Movie Guns XI. I usually post on Sundays, but I have the time right now, so here it is.

I went movie shopping the other day for a specific movie for this weeks post, but I found one instead that I haven't seen in years that definitely fit the bill. An excellent gun movie that features many different 1911's and Smith & Wesson revolvers, this weeks post is on the film Dead Presidents.

There are some awesome firefights to be seen, but as usual when I go frame by frame I find all kinds of things that I'm not supposed to. Some of the actors in the film show terrible gun handling skills, but there are some authentic things that lead me to believe that the directors (Albert and Allen Hughes) at least vaguely listened to their military advisor/armorer.

The first gun pictured in the film is at the beginning and has Kirby (Kieth David) taking a Stainless Steel Smith & Wesson (S&W) Model 36 from a store owners wife before he punches her in the face. He then fights with the store owner, who pulls off his prosthetic leg, where he then falls down next to the man and puts the little revolver in his face:

That man looks terrified. Kirby later lays the gun down on the seat of the getaway car where I got a couple of close ups:

Fromwhat I can see, the gun is not loaded. Next up, we are off to South East Asia.

The movie has three friends who join the Marine Corps and go to Vietnam. Anthony (Larenz Tate) and Skippy (Chris Tucker) are in a Force Recon unit that gets in big firefights while using a variety of different weapons.

The first fight shows Anthony blasting away with this Mossberg 590, which he double racks the slide at one point; ejecting a live shell:

Here is another cool shot of him racking the slide the right way:

Cleon (Bokeem Woodbine) is carrying a M3 "Grease gun" which he often fires from the hip with his eyes closed:

Here he is with the most awful chicken wing stance that I have ever seen:

Notice the M16A1 that Dugan (Jamez Woolvet) is firing. Several of these are shown in the hands of the Marines. It has the basic three-prong flash hider like the first M16, but you can see that it has a forward assist which was a feature of the M16A1. Here's a left side view of Dugan firing on semi:

The sling mount by the bayonet lug is duct taped to keep it from making noise which is common practice amongst Marines.

Next we have D'ambrosio (Michael Imperioli), who had been using one of the cross-breed M16A1's in the first firefight, now carrying a Russian PPSh-41 submachine gun:

This gun fires the little 7.62x25mm Tokarev cartridge and would probably be very useful in a small unit behind enemy lines.

In one firefight, they get in a tangle with a NVA unit that has a RPD machine gun:

Here is Dugan firing away in the jungle with a M1911, probably a Colt:

I have to point out that for a Force Recon unit, they sure don't act like one. There is plenty of coughing, talking, and shouting while on patrol, and at one point they are all cleaning weapons or eating, and not one of them has a functional weapon in their hand. Then there are the things that you can't see unless you slow the film down a bit, like when Cleon executes a tied up prisoner with a M1911, you can see that the slide is locked back when he puts it to the guys head and fires.

At this point, the movie moves back to New York where everyone is struggling to make a living. A mean pimp named Cutty (Clifton Powell) knocks Anthony down the stairs and pulls out a chromed 1911 oof unkown make and puts it in his face:

Notice the hammer is down, which is odd considering that he had just racked the slide to presumably chamber a round.

This is pretty much where it gets to be 1911 and S&W galore. Anthony, Kirby, Skippy, Jose (Freddy Rodriguez), and Delilah (N'Bushe Wright) are sitting at a table planning the heist of an armored car. Sitting on the table are several 1911's which I couldn't get a shot of, and this blued S&W Model 36:

What happens next is a big gunfight when the heist goes bad. Kirby starts blasting with a stainless 1911 at a random cop who wanders into the fray:

The cop takes a fighting stance and returns fire with what I believe to be a S&W Model 10:

The cop eventually takes cover behind a post office box like he's supposed to, but Skippy takes the cops life by shooting him in the back of the head with this stainless steel 1911, which somehow fired even though the hammer was clearly down:

Anthony convinces one of the cops to drop his sidearm with this cutoff, pistol gripped Remington Model 870:

The armored car guards are carrying S&W Model 10's like this one that was dropped:

The only thing odd about this gun is that the screws on the side do not match any of the S&W revolvers that I can find. I'm sure it's a Model 10, but if I'm wrong please let me know. Here is a picture of one holstered, and one on the loading dock which is stoked with lead round nose cartridges:

Jose is carrying this revolver which is the real mystery gun because I can't get a better picture of it:

Delilah pops out of a dumpster with a brace of 1911's and cuts down a guard:

When she gets killed, she hits the ground at slide lock:

I had to count and re-count the shots fired during this scene. Kirby fires 11 rounds from his 1911 without reload, and the cop fires back with 9 rounds from his revolver; of course without reload. Anthony racks the shotgun about 7 times and fires twice, and I couldn't tell how many rounds Delilah fired. I can say that she had her eyes closed the entire time that she was emptying those .45's - twice.

Overall, you can't tell these things while watching the movie, so don't think less of it. The shootouts are good-to-go, and the amount of cool hardware that they bring to the fight makes this an excellent gun movie.

Update: Commenter Ed Harris notes that the revolver that I labeled as S&W Model 10, is in fact a Colt Official Police. Great catch, and thank you for identifying it!